


fireworks (you light up my night skies)

by coppertears



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-14 01:04:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7145762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coppertears/pseuds/coppertears
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>chanyeol wants to ask baekhyun to prom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fireworks (you light up my night skies)

  
**fireworks (you light up my night skies)**  
chanyeol/baekhyun  
pg-13  
chanyeol wants to ask baekhyun to prom.  
gift fic for [](http://sutecha.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://sutecha.livejournal.com/)**sutecha** aka austyn-senpai. i hope you like this! eheh i kind of veered away from the cute fluff part but i found my way back to it somehow?  


 

chanyeol walks up to baekhyun when he is crossing twelve years and getting accustomed to being a head taller than everyone else. he remembers seeing the brown-haired boy running down the hallway with a blown-up rubber glove on his head, crowing at anyone he passes by. chanyeol thinks he’s a riot, and since he himself is always searching for good, clean fun, he decides to talk to baekhyun.

he finds him leaning against the schoolyard tree, shoulders bent with a happy kind of exhaustion that’s all too familiar to chanyeol. and when he comes to a stop in front of him, baekhyun looks up with sunlit eyes and fragile eyelashes, and he says, “hey.”

“h-hey,” chanyeol says, voice cracking. it’s more frequent lately, the little changes in his body, and he’s reminded of that when he has to look down at baekhyun because the other guy is shorter.

“chanyeol, right?” baekhyun asks. he shakes his fringe out of his eyes.

“yes,” chanyeol says. “and you’re baekhyun, aren’t you?”

baekhyun nods then sticks out his hand. “nice to meet you, future best friend.”

 _too fast too fast too fast_ thumps in chanyeol’s veins, the thought skittering across his skin and climbing up his chest, but he takes baekhyun’s hand. he doesn’t even shake it. he just holds it, baekhyun’s lean fingers all tangled up with his calloused ones, and the feeling of rough against smooth is a little discomfiting. a little out of place, but chanyeol thinks he likes it.

“nice to meet you, too,” he says. his smile is white teeth, straight and lined up like soldiers going to war. baekhyun returns it with a shyer yet infinitely sweeter one.

and after two days of figuring out how exactly you can jam together two oddly-shaped puzzle pieces, they do become best friends.

 

 

 

 

a week before their last high school finals, baekhyun sidles up to chanyeol during study hall and breathes into his ear, “do you have a date for prom yet?”

normally chanyeol is easy to surprise. his usual reaction would have been to knock out the person’s front teeth with his shoulder, jump a mile up in the air, and land on the ground with all the fanfare of honking geese. but this is baekhyun, and he’s spent so much time with the other guy that he’s etched the sound of baekhyun’s breathing into his mind.

so he continues flipping through the pages of his book, instinctively leaning back so that baekhyun can rest his chin on the dip between chanyeol’s neck and shoulder, right hand reaching up to card through baekhyun’s hair. _it’s deep red now_ , chanyeol thinks, _like a ripe apple._ it’s no longer the same color baekhyun had when chanyeol first met him.

“mmm, no, not yet,” chanyeol says. he hums under his breath. _the coefficient of static friction is greater than the coefficient of kinetic friction_ ripples over him. he wonders what that means -- wonders why it takes more force to accelerate a mass from rest, wonders why it’s so hard for things to start moving.

maybe if he just takes the leap, he won’t feel the pain that comes from no one running to catch you.

“what about you?” he asks when baekhyun doesn’t say anything else. the shorter boy’s hair tickles his neck. the weight is familiar, pressing down on chanyeol and reminding him of beach trips and sand in his toes. “have you asked anyone yet?”

he feels the way baekhyun shakes his head, the puff of an exhale. he doesn’t know if it’s sad. he can’t turn his head right now and look into baekhyun’s eyes and see if he is sad. “nope, not yet.”

“do you --” chanyeol hesitates. the words are tangled in his throat, now, all knotted up and hard to make sense of. he swallows. _the normal force is perpendicular to the surface of a plane._

baekhyun’s hand comes up and dances over chanyeol’s physics textbook. his thumb rests on an illustration of a pulley system. “do i what?” he prompts.

 _do you want to come to prom with me?_ chanyeol thinks but doesn’t voice. “do you have someone in mind?” he asks, but his volume is turned down low, almost as if he doesn’t want baekhyun to answer. and maybe he doesn’t, not really.

“hmm?”

chanyeol sighs. “never mind, it’s nothing.”

baekhyun hums. “are you sure?”

“yeah,” chanyeol says. “yeah, i’m sure.”

it’s not nothing, chanyeol knows. prom is in three weeks, chanyeol knows. if he wants to ask baekhyun, he has to ask him now -- chanyeol knows this as well.

he continues reading the chapter, long after the weight of baekhyun’s head disappears from his shoulder and the measured breaths turn to air.

 

 

 

 

they share everything together. baekhyun and chanyeol are in different classes on the year that they meet, but during breaks they gravitate towards each other. and maybe that’s the reason why there are cafeteria food fights during lunch and pranks from left to right. every afternoon, there are two skinny boys running down the lane with backpacks half-hanging from their shoulders, on a mad race to the bus stop.

they have ice cream summers, flavors pooling in the creases of their palms before being licked away. playground dates, where they take turns pushing each other on the swings and whizzing down the bent steel slide, the world a gaussian blur when they ride the merry-go-round. they have _the adventures of park chanyeol and byun baekhyun_ , which involve getting lost in city streets and shopping malls until they’re scared enough to find where their mothers have gone.

baekhyun teaches chanyeol how to smile sincerely, unafraid of what people might say. he teaches chanyeol that his ears are perfect the way they are, that even if his right eye twitches, baekhyun will still be around. “i’m your best friend,” he says, over and over again when chanyeol does something wrong and nearly bursts into tears because this time, he might drive baekhyun away.

chanyeol teaches baekhyun how to play the guitar. baekhyun’s slim hands are made for the piano, though, and he doesn’t quite have the knack. so chanyeol plays the guitar instead, and he teaches baekhyun to be brave about letting himself be heard. he teaches baekhyun to open his mouth and sing, and he teaches baekhyun that it is perfectly alright to let himself cry. “you’re my best friend, remember?” he reminds baekhyun every second, every hour, every day that baekhyun thinks he’s being too much of a burden.

two and a half years into their friendship, chanyeol realizes that there is no one else he can love.

it’s because on new year’s eve, baekhyun grabs chanyeol’s hand and tugs him away from the party that chanyeol’s family is holding, and he leads him to the balcony. from there they watch fireworks burst in the night sky, tearing through the darkness in shapes and sizes and colors more dazzling than either of them can begin to comprehend.

it’s because chanyeol turns his head, about to say something to baekhyun (he doesn’t remember what), and he stops. baekhyun’s lit up with an inner glow, brighter than the lotus flowers blooming amongst the clouds. chanyeol’s heart stutters and emotions crash into him the way waves do when they come closer to the shore. in those seconds, he is distilled into an illusion of a future with baekhyun by his side, built up out of the yesterdays they’ve spent together.

baekhyun turns his head and the moment is shattered, but chanyeol doesn’t forget the feeling.

three nights later, chanyeol tells baekhyun he’s gay. he doesn’t tell baekhyun that it’s not so much a sexual orientation as it is a realization that no matter who baekhyun is, chanyeol will love him. that in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter to chanyeol. what matters is baekhyun’s response.

it’s quiet for a few minutes after he says it. and then baekhyun is cradling chanyeol’s jaw and he’s locking their gazes together, and chanyeol doesn’t know why baekhyun’s hands are trembling but his eyes are so steady. almost like pinpricks of light in the horizon.

“no matter who you are,” baekhyun says, “i am still your best friend.”

chanyeol doesn’t know why but his heart breaks a little. he doesn’t tell baekhyun that he likes him.

he just nods his head and lets baekhyun hold him until all the lights go out.

 

 

 

 

once finals are over, baekhyun tugs chanyeol to the mall. “i need to buy something,” he says, “and i’d like to have a second opinion.”

“i’m not sure that i’m the best choice for this, baek,” chanyeol says. they zigzag through the crowds. it’s cold; chanyeol contemplates lending baekhyun his jacket. but the shorter guy seems fine, and chanyeol moves on to trying not to kiss him.

they end up in a store that sells suits.

baekhyun wrings his hands. “my mom brought me here last weekend but i couldn’t pick,” he says. he looks up at chanyeol with eyes that are round with suppressed panic. “help me out?”

chanyeol thinks, _oh_. he shifts from foot to foot and thinks of his own suit, newly bought and hanging in the back of his closet. he’d gotten it from this store, too. “okay,” he says.

they go through several dress fittings, baekhyun becoming more and more self-conscious with every outfit. chanyeol is unhelpful. “you look good in that,” he says to everything that baekhyun wears. and, really, baekhyun does look good -- chanyeol doesn’t see what the problem is.

after the fifth fitting, baekhyun turns weary eyes to chanyeol. “what are you wearing?” he asks, probably in an attempt to calm himself down.

chanyeol walks over to a rack and picks out a suit similar to his own. “this one, actually,” he says. “i’m planning on wearing a vest and bow tie.”

baekhyun nods. “yeah, it fits you.”

chanyeol smiles faintly and returns the suit. “do you have a date, then?” he asks, working to keep his tone as light as he possibly can. his eyes land on baekhyun’s askew tie.

baekhyun opens his mouth then closes it. chanyeol walks forward and, without asking for permission, unknots baekhyun tie and fixes it for him. he can feel the other guy’s eyes on him, scorching in this proximity, but chanyeol focuses on his hands and what he’s doing.

it takes a while for baekhyun to answer. “not yet, actually,” he says.

chanyeol steps back and admires his handiwork. “is there someone you’re even planning to ask?”

“i have no idea,” baekhyun says and chanyeol hears the honesty ringing in his words. “what about you?”

“i have someone in mind,” chanyeol says. “i’m just working up the courage to ask.”

baekhyun gives him a small, tentative smile. “girl or boy?”

chanyeol considers this. he looks at baekhyun from head to toe. “you really look good in this one,” he says. then: “boy.” _you_ , he thinks. _you._

“oh. okay.” baekhyun averts his gaze. “i like this one, too.”

“get it,” chanyeol urges.

baekhyun begins walking back to the dressing room where he’d left his school uniform. “i will. thanks, yeol.”

when he’s gone from sight, chanyeol leans his forehead against the mirror and stares at his reflection. _tomorrow_ , he tells himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

sometimes when you try to unspool the thread of six years spent together, it’s a long and tangled one. memories are paint chips peeling off of watercolor fingers, and the feelings are just as hard to hold on to, like sunlight dripping into sidewalk cracks before becoming shadows. and chanyeol doesn’t know when exactly it starts, but he thinks that somewhere along clutching the back of baekhyun’s jacket so he can protect the shorter one, it turns into him doing that because he is lost without baekhyun. a dot on pad paper, all those lines and yet there’s nowhere to go.

baekhyun is an open flame each and every time, and chanyeol is a moth. he is unable to resist. and it’s so easy to just lean in sometimes and kiss the smile growing out of the corners of baekhyun’s mouth, so easy to let the words slip. but he stops. for two and a half years after he realizes he’s in love with baekhyun, chanyeol holds himself back.

and maybe, maybe he would have continued doing so if not for the fact that this is their last year in high school. maybe he’d have kept on pretending, if only prom isn’t coming up -- and there are a thousand other souls in the batch but chanyeol can’t see himself without baekhyun. it’s all or nothing for him.

he just needs courage. chanyeol wonders why it’s so scarce nowadays.

 

 

 

 

the sun is a perfect circle today. it’s three days and one week before prom -- chanyeol might have been lying to himself about asking baekhyun earlier. but he’s spurred to action when he sees a girl hovering at their classroom’s doorway, searching for _baekhyun-oppa_.

he watches his best friend get up and walk towards the girl. several times throughout their friendship, he and baekhyun have had their fights, but he’s never been scared of losing him as he is right now. his vision tunnels towards baekhyun and the girl.

when baekhyun comes back, chanyeol tries to be as nonchalant as possible when he asks, “what was that?”

he shrugs. “she wanted me to perform for the year-end school festival,” he says. “nothing big.”

chanyeol breathes a silent sigh of relief. “what did you tell her?”

“i told her i would,” baekhyun says. “as long as you accompany me.” he peeks up at chanyeol with uncertainty written on his face. like glowing neon, it’s so easy to read. but maybe chanyeol just knows him too well.

“okay,” chanyeol says, and all of the tension gushes out of baekhyun at once. he wets his lips, and his palms are sweaty right now. “hey, can i ask you a question?”

baekhyun seems to stiffen. chanyeol sees the way his hands curl into fists, and he wonders why that is. “yeah?”

chanyeol swallows. he traces the ridges of vandalism all over his desk. there is a heart scratched onto the upper right corner of the wood, and chanyeol follows the rough curves of the shape. “i don’t know if you’ve asked anyone or if anyone has asked you but,” and he takes a deep breath, “will you go to prom with me?”

there is a silence for a while. not around them, because their classmates are still playing around and gossiping, and the pa system is crackling with static-filled songs. but it’s there between them, the unsettling quiet that’s a rarity when it comes to the two of them but is becoming more common lately. chanyeol thinks maybe he should bridge it.

“what happened to the one you wanted to ask?” baekhyun asks. chanyeol can’t look at him, not now; he doesn’t know how to interpret the lack of inflection in baekhyun’s words.

“he’s okay,” chanyeol says. “he’s right here and i just asked him and he hasn’t answered me yet.”

a beat. and then hands are on chanyeol’s face, and baekhyun turning his head towards him, and they’re face to face ( _nose to nose_ ). the heat is suffocating chanyeol from the outside in. baekhyun is too close -- now there’s electricity thrown into the mix.

“well,” baekhyun says, eyes searching chanyeol’s, “would you mind repeating that question for him?”

chanyeol hates baekhyun right now. except he’s also loved baekhyun for the longest time, so he supposes it balances out. “byun baekhyun,” he says, loud enough for baekhyun to hear but quiet enough that this is only kept between them, “will you go to prom with me?”

baekhyun lets go of him, and he throws his head back and laughs. chanyeol wants to be irritated but he isn’t. he just watches baekhyun laugh, chest rising and falling, breaths coming faster. then he’s sitting up straight again, looking back at chanyeol, and his eyes are so bright. he grins. “of course.”

it’s chanyeol who laughs, this time.

 

 

 

 

he and baekhyun used to like playing with makeshift wooden swords. they had their own little corner in the neighborhood park, and there they would parry and block each other’s attacks. chanyeol was a mess of limbs where baekhyun was made out of grace, dodging each desperate attack that chanyeol threw his way.

they’d do this until the sky bled blue, past the hour they’d told their mothers they’d come back, and he and baekhyun would flop down on the grass. street lights cast them in orange circles. side by side, limbs intertwined, baekhyun would point up and whisper each constellation’s name in chanyeol’s ear. and chanyeol would listen closely, no matter how many times baekhyun told him about this; he would listen, and he would tuck away in his mind how warm baekhyun felt and how soft his hair felt against chanyeol’s cheek.

they always got scolded when they came home, but chanyeol’s always thought that the grass stains on his pants and the moments with baekhyun are worth losing video game privileges for.

 

 

 

 

on prom night, chanyeol’s sister yura combs his hair and sprays perfume over him. “take care of baekhyunnie,” she warns. “try not to dance. you’ll step on his foot.” chanyeol nods and takes in all of her advice, but his stomach is a roiling pit of nerves bubbling up and threatening to break through the surface.

his mother drops him off at the venue with a “have fun!” thrown over her shoulder. chanyeol stumbles out and readjusts his blazer once the car’s out of sight. the venue’s squirming with bodies all made up with glitter and formal wear, and chanyeol wonders how he’s going to find baekhyun in this mess.

there is a tap on his shoulder. chanyeol whirls around and comes face to face with a slightly anxious baekhyun. “hey.”

it takes chanyeol a while to respond, for him to register the fact that baekhyun’s wearing the exact same suit as he is, only with a silvery-gray bow tie instead of a black one. his red hair is styled in that neatly tousled way chanyeol likes on baekhyun, and his eyes are carefully rimmed with eyeliner. he’s beautiful and chanyeol can’t speak, will never know how to speak, because baekhyun will always be beautiful to him.

baekhyun frowns and pokes his chest. “i said hey,” he says.

“huh? i -- uh -- yeah,” chanyeol stutters out, coming back to his senses. “hey.”

“we should go in,” baekhyun says, fingers wrapping around the crook of chanyeol’s elbow. he tugs him through the doors, past the registration booth and towards their assigned table. the others are coming in as well, filling up the ballroom and taking their seats.

chanyeol still can’t tear his eyes off of baekhyun. “you look good,” he blurts out.

the tips of baekhyun’s ears turn red, and he refuses to look at chanyeol when he says, “yeah, you too. you look really handsome.”

chanyeol searches for a topic, trying to stop the awkwardness from blanketing them. “do you want a drink?”

baekhyun shakes his head. “no, it’s okay. it’s too early to be intoxicated.”

“do you…” chanyeol drifts off, unsure about chasing this line of thought, but it’s not like he’s got any choice. “do you want to dance?”

baekhyun raises his eyebrow. “really, park chanyeol? you’re asking me to dance?”

chanyeol blushes. “i -- if you don’t --”

but baekhyun’s standing up, and he’s holding out his hand to chanyeol. “okay then,” he says. “i really do like my shoes, though, please don’t murder them.”

for the first few minutes, they kind of just stand in the middle of the dance floor, not sure how to go about this. there’s a ballad playing, chanyeol doesn’t know what it is, but it sounds pretty. he looks at baekhyun and thinks his best friend is even prettier than the song.

he’s glad baekhyun can’t actually read his mind.

baekhyun sighs and steps closer. he throws his hands around chanyeol’s neck and, after a beat, chanyeol holds his waist. the contact shocks him, static thrumming on his skin and running up his spine, and he almost forgets how to breathe when baekhyun tiptoes and whispers, “we’re supposed to dance.”

chanyeol isn’t a dancer, not at all, but he obeys. and all they do is sway awkwardly from side to side, exchanging small talk. halfway through, baekhyun presses his body against chanyeol’s, closing the gap entirely, and chanyeol falters a bit.

“keep dancing,” baekhyun whispers, and chanyeol manages to pick the rhythm back up.

“this song’s nice,” chanyeol says, at a loss for anything else to say.

baekhyun hums. “it’s bumkey’s love song,” he murmurs.

“you should cover this,” chanyeol says. “your voice is made for it.”

baekhyun looks up at him then, eyes twinkling with something that chanyeol can’t define. “it can be our song,” he says.

“our song,” chanyeol repeats. he feels his pulse thumping away. he doesn’t notice that they’ve both stopped moving.

“chanyeol,” baekhyun says, and his face is all soft smudges of beauty in the changing lights, “why did you ask _me_ to the prom? i mean, not that i don’t like it, it’s just...why?”

chanyeol bites his lip. “because you’re my best friend?” he tries.

“is that really the only reason?” baekhyun’s voice is lower now. a little more raw.

and chanyeol doesn’t want it to be like this, doesn’t want to take this step. he doesn’t want to say it. he’s afraid of what baekhyun might say.

but baekhyun’s teeth are worrying his bottom lip, and something inside chanyeol snaps. like glass bottles thrown to the wall, his resolve shatters and he doesn’t even think anymore, he just leans in and kisses baekhyun.

it takes a second for baekhyun to kiss him back.

when they break apart, baekhyun looks dazed and chanyeol thinks his own vision is blurry and unclear. “no,” he says.

“no?” baekhyun repeats, confused.

chanyeol chuckles and shakes his head. “no, it’s not the only reason,” he says, cupping baekhyun’s face. he’s come this far. finally, finally, it seems like it’s within reach -- like baekhyun isn’t in a galaxy light years away from where chanyeol is. “i like you, baekhyun.”

baekhyun opens his mouth. he blinks. he closes his mouth.

and then he’s tugging chanyeol down again, and he’s kissing him, and they’re both laughing at the same time. and there are smiles sewn into their lips, there is happiness, and chanyeol thinks he can hear faint whispers of _idiot_ in the air that passes between them.

he just smiles and kisses baekhyun deeper.

 

 

 

 

“baekhyun?”

“yeah?”

“does that mean you like me, too?”

“...please don’t be an idiot, park chanyeol.”

“so you don’t like me then?”

“i -- what -- you’re an _idiot_ , chanyeol. of course _i like you,_ isn’t my kissing you back answer enough?”

“just making sure.”

“okay, you know what? let’s just kiss again so i don’t have to deal with your dumbness.”

“mm-hmm. whatever you say.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**a/n:** this is horse’s poop omg i am so sorry austyn i tried i think it was angst for a bit but i remembered the cute fluff + awkward i just -- i am going to go to a corner and reflect on my mistakes now. i’m so sorry if i disappointed you.  >.<

  



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